Newport pensioner accused of sexually assaulting young women told police he is 'too friendly', court hears

Ronald Price, 78, is accused of abducting the woman, who was 19 at the time and 24 now, and driving her to a country hotel.

The alleged victim says that Price, of Wenlock Drive, Newport, had tried to kiss her and was touching her thigh as they sat in a conservatory at the rural Shropshire hotel.

But while being interviewed under caution by police, Price told officers that he was just being friendly.

In a transcript read out at Shrewsbury Crown Court yesterday (Fri), Price said: "I have been too kind. I was trying to help her career.

"I knew she wanted to move to London to study and I knew people there.

"She wanted to perform and I thought I could help.

"On the day we went for coffee and then she got called away so we got back in the car and that is the end of it.

"I don't know where the idea of kidnap came from. I'm annoyed by it. Annoyed and offended.

"I'm too friendly for my own good and that's a fact."

Earlier, the jury heard Price had offered to meet the alleged victim in London, buy her train ticket and travel with her.

Price, who knew the woman from the bar where she worked, also told her he had a villa in Spain where she could stay and he wanted to give her a car.

Eventually, she gave in to Price's numerous requests to take her for a coffee in the hope it would "get him off her case."

She told the court earlier this week that Price had enticed her into his car and she did not know where they were going.

"I was in the car for about 30 minutes. I knew it was somewhere near Bridgnorth," she said.

She said Price took her to a hotel and tried to kiss her and touched her thigh. Tearing a page from her diary she left a message for the hotel receptionist to call her mother and at this point she alleged that Price ushered her out of the premises and drove back towards Telford.

She claimed Price was again touching her thigh but she "just froze".

The court heard she managed to text a friend who then phoned to say she was needed at the bar where she worked.

Price denies kidnapping the girl in September 2010 and sexually assaulting her.

In addition, he denies nine other charges of rape and sexual assault involving two other girls under 13 on dates between 2004 and 2007.

The trial continues.